


Not Always a Crowd

by SweetestHoney



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Pre-Poly, That's it, this is just really fluffy alright
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:01:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27308143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetestHoney/pseuds/SweetestHoney
Summary: "MJ and Peter had been, well, MJ and Peter for so long by the time they reached the end of college that MJ almost didn’t think about it anymore. She loved him, of that she had no doubts, but they’d settled down into a relationship that was equal parts comfortable and enjoyable and it had become part of the background noise of her life."Orrrrr Peter is a small boi who has too much love in his heart and he's incredibly terrible at comminucating it but he tries really hard anyway. Peter/MJ, some discussed Peter/Bucky, and pre-ot3 poly negotiations. It's just fluff and MJ trying to talk Peter out of despairing that he's the worst boyfriend in the world.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39
Collections: Thwip & Hari's Kinktober '20





	Not Always a Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Thwip + Hari's kinktober event, where I absolutely spent until the very last moment procrastinating writing it even though I knew what I wanted to do for like a month. Oop. But! I'm still pretty happy with how it came out, I hope y'all enjoy! 
> 
> Prompt was "Romance/Polyamory", it's probably heavier on the poly than on the romance by a bit.

MJ and Peter had been, well,  _ MJ and Peter _ for so long by the time they reached the end of college that MJ almost didn’t think about it anymore. She loved him, of that she had no doubts, but they’d settled down into a relationship that was equal parts comfortable and enjoyable and it had become part of the background noise of her life. With their cramped, shared apartment and their busy schedules (him saving the world one evil villain at a time, her saving the world through her work in chemistry), they still found time to go on dates and watch bad tv together and cuddle when the weather turned colder. 

So it was a shock to her on one rainy thursday when Peter came skidding into the lab where she was finishing up a project for one of her final classes; he was soaked through with rain, his chest heaving, and was suspiciously red eyed, to which MJ just pursed her lips, looking him over. He didn’t  _ look _ injured as far as she could tell, but he’d gotten all too good at pretending he was fine where there was something broken or sliced or bruised. 

When he finally came to a stop, skidding a little on the slippery tiles, Peter took a moment to suck in a few deep breaths, his eyes wide and focused on her. He didn’t speak right away and MJ just rolled her eyes, taking the lead when she realized he probably wasn’t going to say anything without her having to pry it out of him. 

“Hi Peter. You’re very wet.” A small grin threatened her face and she ducked her head away from him. She didn’t mind showing the boy affection, they’d long since gotten past her weirdness about people seeing her emotions (well, maybe not ‘people’ but with Peter she’d gotten better), but it was an ingrained habit and one she clung to when she wasn’t sure what was happening. 

“I, uh, yeah. Sorry. You’re probably – you’re in the middle of working on stuff and I – fuck, I’m sorry MJ, I’ll just - I’ll just leave, let you get back to–” As Peter started to back up, eyes widening further as he got the expression he usually did when he was about to turn tail and run (she’d never seen him back down from fighting a bad guy ten times his strength, but one hint that he’d disappointed her and he took off like a rabbit), MJ quickly stepped closer and fisted a hand in his jacket, holding him in place. 

The feeling of the wet denim was kind of disgusting and MJ made a face but held tight, not letting Peter slip out of her grip and back out into the rainy New York streets. He could have pried her hands off him in a nanosecond but he wouldn’t, not if she was holding him close to her. 

“Peter.” He was avoiding her eyes and when she said his name he jumped but still didn’t look at her. “Peter. Please look at me.” He met her gaze, flinching when she looked him over. “Are you injured?” He shook his head, his breath still coming faster than it usually did, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re sure you’re not hurt somewhere?” 

He shook his head roughly, spraying water everywhere like a puppy and then wincing as he realized what he’d done. “Fuck, that’s – no, ‘m not...not hurt, MJ. Just – had to see you. Talk to you.” 

As he spoke, she noted that his hands were clenched into fists in his pockets and his eyes were back to jumping around the room, looking at everything except for her. She gave a tug on his jacket, refocusing his attention. 

“Okay. Okay, Peter, if you’re not hurt that’s fine, thank you for telling me.” He calmed a little but his hands and feet were still twitching and she got the feeling that he’d be fidgeting if she wasn’t holding him still. “Now, is it absolutely urgent, what you need to talk to me about? Or can we get you dried off and into some warm and preferably not damp clothes before you catch a cold?” 

He gave her a shrug and a grimace. “Not...not urgent. I mean, a little, but warm clothes sound nice.” There was a little bob of his head, another twitch, and MJ bit her lip while wondering just what had him so worked up. She didn’t say anything more though, and just led him out of the lab, across the hallway into one of the lounges that the chemistry students almost never used since they were so busy. But it was warm and dry and had comfy plush couches, which was what she wanted, and she sat Peter down on one of the couches with a gentle push. 

He went where she sat him and stayed there, shivering a little as she walked around him. The chem rooms all had a few small towels for washing off chemical accidents and MJ slipped out of the room (but not before giving Peter a  _ look _ that meant he better stay where she’d put him or she really would be upset with him) and back to the lab. She was the only one left in the chem labs, finishing up a project that she’d taken on in her spare time and working on it late into the evening, and she moved quickly down the hallway, gathering the small towels from three consecutive labs. She saw nobody as she went, and when she got back to the lounge, Peter was still sitting where she’d put him. 

He jerked around when she reentered the room, looking surprised, and when his apprehension didn’t fade as he realized it was just her MJ frowned harder at him. 

“Here.” She put the towels down beside him and reached for the zipper of his jacket. “Let's get you dry, alright? Wet denim is never a good look on anyone.” He let her strip him out of the jacket and she frowned again at him as she saw he only wore a thin t-shirt underneath, one of the ones he saved for training days with the team. Speaking of which…. MJ’s eyes snapped up to see Peter’s face. “Didn’t you have training today? With the team?” 

He flinched again but nodded, meeting her eyes and looking truly pitiful. “Y-Yeah.” When he didn’t expound further MJ just huffed and stripped him out of the shirt as well, exposing his chest to the room at large. They were lucky that their section of the building was deserted, MJ thought, as she fiddled with the button to his pants. Peter’s hands took over for her, none too gently pushing her hands out of the way, and he finished pulling off his outer layers quickly, taking a seat once more on the now rather damp couch. MJ looked him over for a moment, checking for any scrapes or bruises that would bely his assertion that he wasn’t hurt, but didn’t find any. 

She grabbed a handful of the small towels and shoved them at him. “Here. You can dry yourself off, and I’ll find you something to wear that’s not soaked, alright? I’ll be back in a moment.” 

He nodded at her and dutifully took the handful of towels, rubbing at his legs and ankles before moving up to his thighs. His movements were mechanical and he kept his eyes fixed on where he was drying himself off, still not looking at her. 

MJ wanted to press the issue now but she wasn’t looking forward to what would happen if someone walked in on her and her mostly naked boyfriend in one of the chem lounges later at night. So, clothes. 

There was a big cardboard box on the third floor that had been marked as ‘clothes donations for those in need’ that was absolutely overflowing with fabric, MJ remembered, and she took the stairs two at a time, grateful that it was only a floor down. When she reached it, she sighed with relief that it was still there, and that it hadn’t been taken away while she worked. Digging through, she came up with a usable, if a little baggy, pair of sweatpants and a shirt that had seen better days but looked to be about the right size. They were both grey, but beggars can’t be choosers. 

She pulled the clothes out of the box before taking note of the name of the charity, setting an internal reminder to donate fifty bucks to them when she had the chance. Clothing in hand MJ rocketed back up the stairs, reentering the lounge to find Peter running a towel over his hair, drying off the worst of the water still there. 

He stood when she closed the door behind her, reaching for the clothes and shivering even harder now, though he was drier than before. She handed them over and then turned her back, watching the door and giving him some privacy to change. 

There was a wet slap as Peter tugged off his underwear and dropped it to the ground and then the rustling of fabric that signaled that he was pulling on the dry clothes. MJ didn’t turn around until Peter told her with a shaky voice that she could, despite having seen him naked more times than she could count. She turned to find Peter had kicked his wet clothes into a pile on the ground and had sat down on a different couch, one that wasn’t soaking now. He had his arms around himself as he tried to stave off the worst of the shivers still wracking his body and the oversized clothes just made him look smaller as he looked back at her. 

MJ’s heart made a funny kind of flip flop and she took a seat next to Peter. When she tried to put an arm around him in an attempt to warm him up, he flinched and she quickly retracted the limb, holding herself steady and trying to keep her breathing even as she did. 

Peter looked at her, face open and worried. “MJ, I’m not – I just, I want to cuddle you but I - I’ve got something to say, uh, first, and you might not want to after that, so I’d rather just...wait, for a bit.” 

At this point she was more confused than anything else, but she nodded, giving him a gesture to go ahead. Instead of saying anything further, he just worried at his bottom lip, twisting his hands in his lap. 

MJ sighed and leaned back against the couch, closing her eyes. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad, Peter. You’re not hurt, I already know you’re spiderman, and unless you got mutated and grew a second dick or something, I can’t see much else really surprising me.” 

He gave a surprised laugh, cutting off with a choke, and when MJ opened her eyes she found that he looked a little better even if he still had that worried expression on his face. 

Peter reached for her hand, but stopped short of actually touching her, just drawing small circles in the tacky red fabric of the couch with his thumb. “MJ, I–” He worked his mouth but no words came out and he closed it again. He swallowed, looked away from her, and tried again. “MJ, I - I cheated on you.” 

Of all the things to come out of his mouth, that was the last thing she was expecting him to say, and it drew her up short. She straightened and looked at him, taking in the hunched posture, the way he was turned away from her slightly. His eyes had been red when he rushed in and she wasn’t sure if he’d been crying on the way there or not, but signs pointed to likely. 

When it didn’t seem like he was planning on saying anything further, she reached for his arm and rested her hand on his wrist. Peter tensed, looking like he was about to fight Doc Ock again, and didn’t look at her. 

“Peter. Can you look at me? Please?” He turned slowly and met her eyes, his face drawn and shuttered as he waited for whatever she was about to say. She rubbed her thumb in small circles over his pulse point, waiting for him to relax before she spoke again. It took a few minutes, but eventually he started breathing again, albeit shallowly, and she gave him a smile. “You know, Peter, you’ve never been good at lying to me. Or to anyone, really, but especially to me.” 

The change of subject caught him off guard and he looked up at her, eyes wide in shock. MJ smiled at him again, this time more openly, and hoped she wasn’t talking out of her ass. “Peter, when you say you cheated on me, what do you mean by that? Because, well, there’s a difference between semi-accidentally kissing someone else and then running over here to tell me immediately because you felt so bad about it and carrying on two separate relationships for months. Is it closer to the former or the latter?” 

He sniffed and took a breath, steadying his shoulders. “T-The former. But, MJ, I didn’t – I didn’t mean to! Well, I mean, I - I kissed him back, but when I remembered what I was doing I stopped, like, right away. And I promise, I won’t - I won’t do it again. Ever. I’m not – I love you, MJ, and I don’t – I never wanted to be the kind of person who’d do something like that. And if - if you want to break up, that’s – I’d understand, MJ, I really would. It’s not – I shouldn’t have done it and saying sorry doesn’t make it right, I know, so if you want to break up with me, I won’t argue.” 

His head was hanging now, and he looked properly chastised. Given that he’d probably been chastising himself the entire trip over to her, MJ was sure he built her reaction up in his head until she’d been the scariest thing he’d faced that year. The boy’s sense of guilt had no bounds, she’d learned, and he attempted to take on personal responsibility for every wrong in the world. 

When she stroked her hand through his hair Peter jumped again, and she gave it a tug to get him to look at her. “If that’s all you wanted to tell me, can I cuddle you now? Or is there more coming?” 

Peter’s look of dumbfounded shock was cute and she took it as a ‘no, nothing more’ and pulled him towards her until he half-sat, half-lay against her, his head tucked under her chin and her hands around him, one running through his hair. He didn’t protest the movement, just stayed quiet and let her pull him where she wanted him. 

After another few minutes the rest of the tension mostly drained from his body and he relaxed against her, breathing evening out. She knew he wasn’t about to do anything to break the moment, since he’d probably convinced himself that as soon as he said anything further she’d change her mind, and so she just held him, giving him some time to come to grips with everything. 

MJ also  _ hadn’t _ missed Peter’s use of the word ‘he’. She was pretty confident that she knew exactly which ‘he’ Peter meant and she wasn’t about to let him get away with kissing any of the other Avengers without giving her all the gossip. It was only fair. 

When MJ spoke again, she kept her voice soft and quiet, not wanting to spook him, although Peter still tensed up again anyway. “Peter, there’s a difference between what your body does and what you are doing. I’m not - I’m not saying you should go out and kiss everyone you’re attracted to, or anything, but sometimes you can’t help whatever your first reaction is. Kissing back is a normal reaction, and as soon as you realized what you were doing, you stopped and came to find me, am I correct?” 

He whimpered, pressing his face against her skin as he tried to hide from her gaze. She didn’t force him to look at her and just kept petting through his hair, holding him tight in her arms. When he spoke it was small and muffled. “Y-Yeah. I kind of - I kind of ran out of there, actually. Wasn’t thinking all that clearly.” 

She chuckled and he seemed to loosen up a little more in her arms. “Well, I can imagine that in any case, Peter.” MJ hesitated before asking her next question. “Are you willing to tell me who it was? If you don’t want to right now, or if you can’t, that’s alright, although I’d like to know at some point.” 

Surprisingly Peter didn’t tense up at that but he did take a big breath, not answering for long moments. The silence went on for so long that MJ figured he wasn’t ready to share it right now but then Peter sighed again. “It - it was, uhm, it was Bucky.” 

MJ had to resist the urge to whoop and punch the air. She’d suspected Peter had a thing for a certain ex-KGB agent turned Avenger for about six months, but every time she tried to nudge the subject closer to Peter’s feelings for the man, he’d gotten skittish. Which, if this was how he was planning to deal with accidentally kissing the man, she understood his reaction more now. 

She kept running her fingers through his hair and hummed to let him know she’d heard him. “Thank you for telling me, Peter. I know that was probably hard to do.” Peter shifted in her arms and she had a brief moment of worry that he’d push away from her but instead he swung his legs up onto the couch so he was more or less laying with his head in her lap, turning so his face was mashed into her stomach. His arms went around her hips and he held tight to her, his whole frame shaking. After another minute of that he finally looked up at her, his eyes bleary and damp. 

“MJ, why are you being so nice to me?” His voice was thick and her own throat tightened as she heard how wrecked he sounded. “I - I did something I shouldn’t have, I  _ hurt you _ , you shouldn’t be making  _ me _ feel better.” 

She shook her head at him. “And when did you become the person who decides if I’m hurt?” He blinked at her, bemused, and she took pity on him. “Peter, I’m not mad, and I’m not hurt.” She hesitated. “Well, I’m a little hurt you’d think I’d be such a bitch about it, I thought you knew me better than that. But if you’re this anxious about it happening, I can understand the mistake.” 

His jaw hung open as he gaped at her and she chuckled, gently closing his mouth before going back to petting through his hair. “Don’t worry, we’ve still got more to talk about, hon, polyamoury negotiations are important and I’ll probably have to talk to Bucky as well, to make sure he’s not going to be an ass, but seeing as I’ve met him already and he seems like a pretty alright guy, I don’t think that’ll be too much of a problem.” 

At that point Peter’s look of absolute confusion only deepened as he looked at her, trying to parse her words. “MJ, I don’t – what do you mean? What’s poly-whatsit? W-Why do you need to talk to Bucky? He’s not – I can talk to him, tell him it can’t happen again.” 

She shook her head at him, biting her lip. “Peter, it is  _ absolutely _ going to happen again if I have anything to say about it. Well, you have to agree that you’d want to try, of course, and so does he, but seeing as the two of you ended up making out without my help already I can’t see that being a problem.” Peter spluttered and she paid him no mind. “Alright, alright, we can back up a minute.” He quieted in order to let her continue. “Let’s start with the basics. If you had never met me, if you were just you and you knew Bucky the same way you do now, would you want to kiss him? Maybe date him?” 

Peter gasped and looked away but MJ gripped his chin and forced him to look at her. “Peter, I’m not saying this to trick you. It’s just a question. You like him, yes?” 

He finally nodded at her and she let go of his chin, triumphant. “Alright. I was right. You, Peter Parker, like Bucky Barnes in a vacuum.” He nodded again. “And as such, you would like to kiss and date and do all sorts of relationship-y things with him.” Peter hesitated but nodded at her again. “All of those things you currently do with me, correct?” Another nod. “And seeing as you and I aren’t completely joined at the hip and we do spend time doing other things, such as this evening when you were  _ training _ –” She put an emphasis on it and gave him an eyebrow wiggle, which made him laugh, “and I was working on my school stuff. So we’re not doing lovey-dovey couple stuff 24/7, right?” 

He bit his lip and nodded, keeping her eye this time. MJ hoped he understood where she was going with it, since she was only two thirds sure she knew herself. “Yeah, but MJ, I don’t – yes, I love you, and I like doing coupley things with you. I don’t want to - to stop doing that, or something; I don’t want to date Bucky instead of you.” Peter still looked more than a little worried although he held her gaze without as much of the anxiety. 

MJ shook her head at him. “I’m not saying you should date Bucky instead of me. I’d be very upset with you if you did that, since I happen to like dating you very much, Peter.” He grinned up at her and it was like the sun breaking through the perpetual rainy dreariness of November. She smiled back, glad that she’d gotten that point through at least. “But Peter, dating doesn’t have to be either/or. Sometimes, when people are honest about how they feel and they talk about stuff and they’re healthy about relationships, you can have both.” 

He gasped and sat up, peering into her eyes as he tried to read the thoughts behind her words. “MJ, you can’t – you don’t think I’d date  _ both _ of you at the same time?” She gave him a smile and a nod and his face crumpled a little. “But - but I’m not that kind of person, MJ, it’d be mean to both of you.” 

She shook her head and reached for him, gathering him close once more. “Not necessarily. Remember, this isn’t you suggesting this and insisting that I go along with it because you want it and you don’t care how I feel.” Peter shook his head roughly at that, gripping her tighter. 

“No! Never, MJ, I want you to be happy more than anything.” 

She tugged at his hair once more, pulling his head back from her neck so that she could look him in the eyes. “Exactly. What I’m saying is that I’ve seen the way you talk about him and I know you Peter. If we talk about what’s okay and what’s not okay we can figure out an agreement with him where we both get to date you and nobody loses.” She pressed a kiss to his nose. “I want you to be happy and denying yourself someone just because you’re scared isn’t going to make you any more happy.” 

He shrugged against her. “W-What do you mean by ‘what’s okay’ and ‘what’s not okay’? I don’t – I just don’t understand.” 

She kissed his cheek this time. “I’m glad you asked, instead of worrying about it. It can mean different things, to be honest. Some people end up with a strict schedule where, for example, I’d get you four days out of the week and he’d get you for three.” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t really care so much about that, as long as we’re about even. Plus, you’ve got superheroing and stuff and we’d have to determine whether that counts or not and that just sounds like a headache, but if having a schedule like that is something that Bucky would want, we could try to work it out so that everyone was okay with it. Does that make sense?” 

Peter nodded at her. Before he could ask another question, however, MJ gave him a sly grin, the one that usually meant she’d decided they were going to do something dangerous and set a low heat burning in Peter’s gut. “And, of course, there’s the other stuff.” She licked her lips. “Like, say, would you be alright if I said I wanted to watch the two of you together? Watch him fuck you?” 

Her question made him gasp and lurch upright again to look her in the eyes, needing to be sure she wasn’t joking. When she just smirked at him, Peter felt like the room had gotten five degrees warmer and he flushed, thinking about what it would be like to have her  _ watch _ . 

“Y-Yeah, MJ, that’s - that sounds – uh-huh. Yes. Please. Watching would be–” He squeezed his eyes shut, imagining it. It was  _ hot _ and Peter was about to combust just thinking about it. “I’m alright with it.” 

She chuckled and the sound went straight to his dick, which was achingly hard now, straining against the borrowed sweatpants. “Well, that’s settled then. We can talk with Bucky, probably sooner rather than later, and see if it’s something he’d be interested in. Sound good to you?” 

Peter nodded, opening his eyes to look at her. “It does. Hell, MJ, I - I can’t tell you how much I love you. I was – and you were – and I just, I don’t know how I got so lucky to have someone who’s so perfect and understanding and just, yeah. You’re amazing.” 

She chuckled again and leaned towards to press her lips to his. “Yes, I am amazing, thank you for noticing.” Peter started laughing as well and kissed her back, the noise of their chuckling cutting off as they pressed closer to each other. 

**Author's Note:**

> I run a thirst/fanfiction discord server and it's lovely being around people who like talking about fic! 💕 If you want to join, you can find us at [ https://discord.gg/UQzEbqn ](https://discord.gg/UQzEbqn)


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